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Power Planter

Well, it’s so good that we now have cooler weather with recent rains. And more rain due this coming week. BUT, this weekend we had perfect weather for planting. Blue skies and sunshine on Saturday, cloudy on Sunday but dry, with a bit of wind. But not too much. And we didn’t have other events on to get in the way of our plans.

On Friday I’d gone to pick up some more plants from our favourite garden shop (Plantmark) and Saturday afternoon we went back to get even more as we knew we’d finish planting the lot we had, early Sunday afternoon.

I blew up the plan we have and took a snapshot of the two areas we were going to work in – one small bed and one much larger one. Then I marked them up with the plants to go in. There are about 3 that we couldn’t source, due to the wrong season, so we just have to leave a space for them, for now. Graham had gotten some yellow water based spray paint to mark out the areas on the ground so we could put the pots in place, to see how they would look before we started on the ground work.

Overall, we got 120 plants into the ground this past weekend: trees, bushes and ground covers. Thank goodness for the Power Planter which really does cut down on the amount of work required to dig holes. Instead, we drill the holes and only a couple of times did Graham have to get the mattock out for hard ground or to lift a rock in the ground. Here are some pics from our plantings Saturday and Sunday. And a list of what we’ve planted:

At last, the rains and cooler weather have arrived and with that, suitable weather for more planting. Graham and I have a lot of time to make up – it’s been almost 5 months since we last planted in earnest. Over the past two weekends I’ve been planting salvias in one section but this past weekend we’ve gone back to planting more Australian natives. In this case grevilleas and callistemons. And their new home is along the back fence-line of our property. Intention is to get them to grow thickly together to around 2.5-3 metres in height and width. Ideal for the bird life. Makes for a good screen to block out the view beyond and also, hopefully, block the wallabies from entering our property over time, as they like to eat young plants when coming in search of water in the drier period. Not a good thing when you’re trying to plant up a new garden. We’ve gone for some prickly bushes as we’re told they don’t like those. And we’ve got quite a selection, pinks, reds, whites and yellows.

One of the best things we’ve ever invested in is the Power Planter. I’ve mentioned it before when planting over 300 bulbs (done in super quick time in soft soil) but just have to show you how easy it is to use. I was using it last weekend in soft soil to plant salvias, but the ground down by the fence line is harder, drier and filled with tree roots, and the occasional rock. As you’ll see in the images and videos below, while the ground was tougher, the Power Planter still made the job of digging holes for bushes so much easier. The tool makes the soil friable and so easy to work with. In the first video it was all done in less than an hour, and I just followed along behind my husband, placing a bush into each hole, covering it over and watering, leaving a small well around each for watering and then off to the next one. Along the way we did unearth some tree roots and my husband had to get the mattock out to dislodge a large root, which also turned out to be covering over a rock.

In the second video I planted 5 bushes in another part of the paddock in less than 20 mins. Again, hard soil and roots, but so much easier than trying to dig with a fork and a spade. Easier on the back and less time consuming.

Digging the hole

Struck some tree roots

More than a tree root

Found a rock!

Rock out

Bushes in

The paddock project is on sloped ground, hence the need for leaving wells around each plant. We need to ensure that the water doesn’t race down the hill, instead of allowing each plant to be suitably watered. We found with earlier plants we put in the ground last year before summer, really suffered because any water they did get, ran off down the hill without soaking in around the roots. We’re learning as we go along.

Wednesday was a public holiday here in Australia, so my husband and I spent some time in the garden in the afternoon. We had over 300 bulbs to get into the ground, in preparation for Spring. The weather has begun to cool down, although we still haven’t had a lot of rain here. Been the driest Summer/Autumn period in our region for quite sometime. A few weeks ago we had to have 10,000 litres brought in by truck, as our tank was almost empty – it’s usually kept full from overflow from the house tanks.

Anyway, my husband bought this awesome tool some months ago. It’s called the Power Planter. We love it. He showed me how to use it the other day and I planted 14 Salvia bushes in quite a short time. Not only a time saver, it saves your back too! Anyway, today’s project was to plant the bulbs and we were so thrilled to get them done in just over an hour! Just over an hour! Had we been doing it the old way (digging over the soil, digging a hole for each bulb, etc) it would have taken much longer and our backs would have felt it too.

Anyway, as I said, we love our power planter. Just makes the job easy. Graham made the holes, I dropped the bulbs in, then watered them in and covered them over. Easy peasy. Hopefully, next Spring, this whole stretch at the top of our paddock garden will be filled with colour. We planted: Liliums, Dutch Crocus, Hoop Petticoat, Garland Lilies, Daffodils, Tulips, Freesia, Ranunculi, Grape Hyacinth, Spring Stars, Anemone, Ixia and Dutch Iris. Also a Ferraria Undulata that I saw at the garden show last month in Melbourne. We still plan to put some ground cover in this section for the rest of the year. Thinking on which ones in particular at the moment. Hopefully we’ll complete that soon.

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Kathie M. Thomas is an Australian Garden Blogger residing in Selby, Victoria, in the Dandenong Ranges. 35km east of Melbourne and primarily classed as Mediterranean temperate zone, similar to warm temperate but with cooler winters, with an average annual lowest temperature 5°C. The summer is warm but usually with low humidity. Average annual rainfall between 900-1000mm.